More good news for Mathieu van der Poel in his quest to add Mountain Biking World Championship to his collection: "I am sure that Mathieu can do it"
Mountain Bike
Mathieu van der Poel, the Dutch cycling superstar, is no stranger to world titles. With six cyclocross world championships, one road, and one gravel title to his name, there is only one major prize missing from his illustrious collection: the Mountain Biking World Championship. Van der Poel himself admits that this elusive title still plays on his mind.
In 2025, his path to the mountain biking crown could be slightly easier, thanks to a new UCI rule. The rule allows riders ranked in the top 10 of another cycling discipline to start at least from the fifth row at the Mountain Bike World Championships. This means Van der Poel, currently ranked fifth in the UCI rankings for both road and cyclocross, will not need to compete in numerous UCI mountain biking events to secure a favourable starting position.
The new regulation, implemented after the Mountain Bike World Championships in Glasgow, provides a significant advantage for multi-discipline riders like Van der Poel. For the upcoming championships in the Swiss Valais, the Dutchman can already count on starting from the fifth row, even though he currently has no UCI points in mountain biking.
National coach Gerben de Knegt commented on the situation in an interview with Sporza, saying, "It is true that Mathieu currently has zero UCI points in mountain biking. So he will not start at the very front. Even if Mathieu rode two World Cups, he would not end up in the top 100 of the UCI rankings."
While the new rule helps, De Knegt highlighted the challenges Van der Poel faces in his quest for the mountain biking title.
"I am sure that Mathieu can do it, but at some point before the World Championships he will have to get the feeling that he can become world champion," De Knegt explained.
He also noted the level of competition Van der Poel would face, pointing out the dominance of British rider Tom Pidcock, "It’s been a while since Mathieu has ridden mountain bike at the highest level. Tom Pidcock is the two-time Olympic champion, you can’t beat him that easily," said De Knegt.
so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?
i’m ashamed to admit that i really don’t know enough about mtb and xco to know mathieu’s chances of winning world’s if he dedicates his season to that discipline once the spring classics are over. anyone want to take a moment to enlighten me i’d appreciate your take on it.
It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.
MVP has already benefited from this rule at a MTB World Championships. The UCI amended the rules a day or two before the 2023 MTB XCO World Champs in Glasgow, Scotland. The rule was changed at the last minute so that MVP and Sagan started further up the grid to supposedly make for a better race for the fans. However, it made little difference as MVP crashed about 3 turns in on the start loop and withdrew from the race.
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- If I remember well, Pidcock slowed, whether out of respect or strategically or just happy he could ease off a bit, only he knows. Your point?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I believe Mathieu rather gets beaten by a stronger rider than one who raced smarter. That is why he wanted to team up with Pogacar to drop the JV riders and Mads who were not helping in the chase of the first group since they had a teammate up front.JoostMehrtens08-04-2025
- Just shows that LA is not truly repentant. JUSTICE was served. No winner, no second , no third on the podium for those 7 years. No real winners could be determined, ever. Lance got to keep most of his money , he really should can it . He is toxic to cycling.dave08-04-2025
- Tricky one as while I agree Pogi and UAE are simply faster over a long distance which means Visma and MVP need to be as smart with energy use as can, it's also been proven in the past that one way for Pogi to be beaten is relentless attacks, to put him into the red. However that does require a rider to as good as sacrifice themselves for that one move which makes riskHoopoeChai07-04-2025